This blog will share elements of the stories of The Homeplace Saga included in this family saga series of novels and stories spanning the early 1800s to the present time. Somewhat like websites related to television shows and movies, elements of the stories and background materials will be included here that may not be explicitly included in the published works. Your participation through comments and questions will enhance the stories and your enjoyment of them.

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Monday, December 23, 2013

Hometown Monday - W & Z are for Wes, William, Winston, and Zach

Hometown Monday

W & Z are for Wes, William, Winston, and Zach

We are continuing this series of posts of excerpts from the novels, novellas, and short stories of "The Homeplace Saga" family story-telling, with a new twist. We have adopted a format from the: "Blogging From A to Z Challenge." Each week we will share the last two published excepts, in this series of posts, related to two of the persons whose name begins with these letters.

This series of posts is to provide an insight into the story lines that may not be clear from other promotional pieces about "The Homeplace Saga." These will also be coordinated with the content of the developmental Wiki, "Beyond the Books" - to expand the information available there, as well. [Links in the text, below, provide more information on that person or entity]

This excerpt is from "The Homeplace Revisited" is from Chapter 28, Thursday, September 19, 1996:

Amy answered the phone at the Country Inn. After a moment, she buzzed Karen in her office, and said, “Karen, it is your sister, Beverly.”

Karen picked up the phone and said, “Beverly. Hello.”

“Shocked to hear your sister’s voice, I can tell.” Beverly spoke very professionally and with little emotion.

“Yes, I suppose I am. It has been a while since we last heard from you. What’s going on?” Karen tried to speak with as much kindness as possible, but it was hardly possible.

“Well, I’m going to be in your area next week, and wanted to see when I could stop by to see you for a few minutes?” Beverly replied, her tone mellowing, just a touch, Karen noted. “Mid-morning on Wednesday would be best, for me, if you’re available.”

“Let me check for sure,” Karen said, thinking that the next trustee’s meeting was on Tuesday. After a moment, and having checked her calendar, she replied, “10ish on Wednesday, the 25th, would be fine. I’ll look forward to seeing you. Any special occasion that brings you to Oak Springs?”

“Well, yes, two things, actually. Perhaps you heard, our construction company is building the new motel there on the west end of town, by the college.”

Karen replied, slowly, “I knew the Bayer Group was building a motel, I had not heard that your company was building it.”

“Well, they are,” Beverly continued. “Also, my husband has a quarterly board meeting out at the Big Thunder Lodge on Wednesday and Thursday. He is a major investor in that place, and was asked to sit on the Board. As long as he is coming up, he wants to stop by and visit the motel construction site; he can kill two birds with one visit. He has a project manager in charge, of course, but checking in, in person, now and then, seems to be his style.”

Karen was staring at the phone, “Very interesting.” A pause. “You’ll be staying at Big Thunder Lodge, then? How long will you be in the area, then?”

“We’ll drive up on Tuesday, return home on Saturday. I’ll want to spend some time with the kids while I’m there, too, of course, and the rest of the family if there’s time and opportunity.” Beverly continued, hardly stopping to take a breath, “We’ll be registered under “Winston T. Threshold, III,” of course, if you need to call. Winnie always likes to flaunt his full name, for some reason, but he is really not that pretentious. He’s a nice guy, a big teddy bear, actually. I guess this will be his first visit to the area; I hadn’t thought about that.”

“I’ll arrange to get the family together one of those days so he can meet all of us, and we can meet him. Check with him and see when you can fit that into your schedule, and I’ll work it out on this end, OK? The reception room is available each of those days.” Karen was making notes as she talked.

“Yes, I’ll do that. We should do that. Thank you, Karen. I’ll let you know, later today or tomorrow, if I can. Yes, I’ll do that.” She had hung up the phone.

Karen finished her notes, and continued to stare at the paper, just a moment. Her mind was saying, ‘Beverly never thought for a moment that we should meet her husband, after these several years… or that he should want to meet us. She’ll never change, will she…’

This excerpt is from "The Homeplace Revisited" is from Chapter 19, Sunday, September 1, 1996:

After church, Christopher spent the afternoon with Nicole’s family at their Labor Day weekend gathering. Nicole’s Dad, Jack, had the burgers on the grill on the patio when they arrived, planning to eat about 2. Though there appeared to be rain clouds to the north, the sky in Oak Springs was only partly cloudy for their holiday weekend gatherings. Nicole’s Mom, Mona, was working in the kitchen making a tossed salad and had everything else set out ready to serve when the burgers were ready.

Nicole’s sister Laura’s husband, Travis Inman, was part of the U.S. Army contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His presence, however, was very strong in this home with multiple photos of him, in uniform and with his family, throughout the house. In talking about Travis, they all expressed hope that his unit would return stateside before the year-end holidays, if they did not get extended.

Six-month old Kayla, who Travis had not yet seen in person, kept Laura fully occupied. Twenty-eight month old Zach, on the other hand, had been looking forward to Nicole’s arrival enthusiastically. They had hardly arrived and Zach wanted her to go with him to his room to show her something or other. Not wanting to interfere with Zach’s excitement on seeing Nicole, Christopher decided he should go out on the Patio and check out the burgers with Jack and some man-talk.

Jack was currently serving his year as President of the Oak Springs Chamber of Commerce board, so the two men saw each other fairly regularly, at least at the monthly meetings, if not more often. Jack mentioned he had heard that Matt had arrived in town and they began discussing the impending Internet service in the community. Jack was a supporter and hoped everything would stay on schedule. Christopher shared his recent conversation with Matt that indicated a positive outcome.

The activities of the afternoon proceeded normally without incident.

Christopher and Nicole left about 5 to go spend some time with his parents. His sister, Melanie and her family had come down from St. Louis to see Carter, for the day, and they would be leaving in the early evening. Nicole had not yet had a chance to see Melanie, her long-ago high school classmate, since she had been back in Oak Springs.

Everyone enjoyed being a part of the classmates’ reunion and sharing their experiences over the past several years as they had sandwiches for supper. Christopher took it all in, picking up a few tidbits that he had missed previously hearing the stories in different settings, as well. Before long, Melanie, Richard and Kim needed to head back to the city. Melanie mentioned that they would be coming down regularly so, “See you all later on.”

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About Me

Born in Coon Rapids, Iowa. William Leverne Smith was born and raised on a Midwestern farm. A passion for family history and genealogy studies provides background for his writing. He and his wife live in a cabin in the Missouri Ozarks.

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